Lesson 4 of 6
Platform risk
6 min read
Your product stands on a model you don't own. One morning the provider raises the price — or builds your feature into their own app, for free. Now what?
You're a tenant, not an owner
When you build on one provider's model, you're renting the ground you stand on. They can raise the price, change the rules, retire the feature you rely on, or ship your whole product as a button in their own app. This is [platform risk](glossary://platform-risk) — and you don't get a vote.
Depending on a single provider means part of your business plan is written by someone else — who can rewrite it overnight.
How to lower the risk
You can't remove platform risk, but you can soften it: keep your product portable so you can swap in another provider, avoid resting your whole value on one feature a provider could absorb, and own the parts they can't take — your data, your users, your niche (the moats from the last lesson).
The moat and platform risk are two sides of one coin: the more of your value that lives in you rather than the rented model, the less a provider's move can hurt.
"The platform might just build this" is a fair question to ask early. If your product is an obvious feature the provider is likely to ship, plan for the day they do.
The shape of it
- —Building on one provider means they control your price, features, and rules.
- —A provider can absorb a thin product as a feature of their own app.
- —Stay portable and keep your value in the parts they can't take.
Your product is one popular feature, built entirely on a single provider's model. What's the clearest way to reduce your platform risk?
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